crazy BT charges

bluevixen99

Can anyone offer advice to my friend? She called BT because her line was majorly crackling (had to call BT on her mobile because it's so bad!) She was informed that an engineer could come out but if the fault turned out to be hers she would have to pay for it.

Engineer duly came out, spent 20minutes pottering around both inside and outside her house, then left from outside her house without letting her know he was leaving or telling her what, if anything, he had done. Line not crackling anymore though, so hooray it's all fixed.

Except that last month she received a bill for £270!!:eek: She phoned BT repeatedly, but it took them a month for someone from the Complaints Dept to get back in touch with her to explain that the costs were for fixing a repair. After pointing out that the engineer was only there for 20 minutes they agreed to knock £80 off the price, but when my friend asked what was actually wrong that the guy fixed, she was told there was only a one-word explanation on her file: 'damp'!!!

She is still battling with BT, but in the meantime they have increased her direct debit payments to get the money off her. In her (and my) opinion, BT acted unfairly because:
1. the engineer didn't tell her what the problem was
2. he didn't ask her permission to fix the problem - if the problem was hers then she has the right to get anyone she wants to fix it
3. 'damp' is a completely nonsensical summary of the problem and solution!!!
4. they've majorly overcharged her for 20mins work

Any advice or suggestions on how she can get her money back? Her main problem is that she just cannot get to speak to anyone helpful at BT - everyone she speaks to says that the Complaints dept will call her back and won't let her speak to them directly. (When she queried why it took so long she was told that they have a backlog because BT get a lot of complaints :rotfl: ) So if anyone could suggest a shortcut to get through to someone at BT who's actually helpful, that would be great.

What do you reckon?

normanmark

1. Call BT they should have engineers notes to advise what was fixed as opposed to one word.
2. He doesn't need permission. Your friend only rents the service not owns, Openreach owns the network & thus they don't need permission. If she's registered a fault with its as good as declaring she wants it fixed by them.
3. Refer to one.
4. She's only seen 20 mins work, there could have been a lot more work carried out at the local exchange or green junction box.

My advise would be to escalate this as far as she can & get precisely the cost breakdown for the work that was carried out. Advise that the notes 'Damp' isn't a great explanation to the problem & the adviser should chase for the engineers notes direct with their supplier.

Good luck

hammy_the_hammer

i can only help on point 2... she has no right to get 'anyone 'to fix her line if it is before /including the first line box.
her main complaint is the engineers customer service skills if he acted exactly in this manner and didn't demonstrate that they had fixed the fault

bluevixen99

Thanks for that. Does you mean that there are other notes out there from the engineer, other than the file that BT holds? ('File' being a rather optimistic term since her file apparently only contains the word 'damp'!!)

hadn't considered the fact that she's only renting the line and equipment, so I suppose it does have to be their engineers that do the work. But he should have at least let her know what he was doing, right? Do you think she should have been given the option to say 'no' to the work?

normanmark

bluevixen99 wrote: »

Thanks for that. Does you mean that there are other notes out there from the engineer, other than the file that BT holds? ('File' being a rather optimistic term since her file apparently only contains the word 'damp'!!)

hadn't considered the fact that she's only renting the line and equipment, so I suppose it does have to be their engineers that do the work. But he should have at least let her know what he was doing, right? Do you think she should have been given the option to say 'no' to the work?

There should be some notes available directly on Openreach's system, they might contain some extra notes that might not have been updated to BT Retail. If it's still only saying just that then they might have to phone the engineer direct (note this is Openreach that will do this not BT Retail or yourself).

It is their engineers that will carry out the work. I think that they should have a quote for the work, but a flat refusal of it will still mean that the line is faulty & needs to be fixed. I think some form of initial quote needs to be in place, albeit that can only go so far as it'll need an engineer visit to establish if the fault is down to Openreach themselves or the customer. Ultimately the work needs to be done to fix the line, if the customer has caused it then the charge will stand.

Not a lot here people can say or do (apart from telling you what you want to hear), i'd advise your friend to get on the phone to them tomorrow & get some clarification on what was carried out.

bluevixen99

Cool, thanks. Anyone got any tips on getting through to the mystical Complaints Department?

normanmark

Try going through the normal route first, give the advisor a chance to sort the issue. If they're not giving any different answer than whats already there. Ask to speak to her team leader. She what she says, again if she's re-iterating whats on there, escalate it to her manager & so on.

By that stage you should at least get someone who can find out the information for you, if you've exhausted that route & you're no further then come back on here & i'll offer a different route.

bluevixen99

cheers. Will let you know how she gets on!

hammy_the_hammer

as said above ultimately if they can't find sufficient notes on the system they may contact the engineer to see if they remember the job.
the engineer will have input a numerical code at the end of the job which indicates the cause of the problem. if i made an educated guess i would think a bt connection box or socket has got damp in it within the premises.
the charge looks to be a callout charge plus work at part of an hour up to an hour

Drunkstar

the charge looks to be a callout charge plus work at part of an hour up to an hour

If thats the case then the charge stands as the fault seems to have been on the customers side, so even if they said they didnt want it fixed the callout + 1 hours labour gets charged.

gilfachboy

This is the new way of getting customers to pay their extortionate repair prices, The damp they will say was in their master socket and it's damage due to you the customer. You can only take their word for it that DAMP was the problem. DID THEY MOVE THE OFFENDING MASTER SOCKET from the SO-CALLED damp wall and place a new one on an inside dry wall. if they didnt you will have problems again with it within a few months then another £216.20 you will have to pay. BT uses the DAMP socket too regular now, So BEWARE of that bt excuse. The only way you can get out of it is to have a surveyors report on the so called damp wall and if no damp is found then you might have a chance of getting your money back off bt. But tell Bt you are going to do this and that if no damp is found that the surveyors costs are going to be sent to them to pay. I had the same problems as you and it's still on-going after 8 months.